Traffic light



, H. S. GROTZ El' AL Sept. 19, 1933.

TRAFFIC LIGHT Filed March 4, 1932 2 Sheets-SheetI 1 .111 ...l ......n.. ............a .2.... .n.w..

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H. s. GRO-rz Er AL TRAFFIC LIGHT Filed March 4, 1932 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Sept.` 19, 1933 PATENT OFFICE TRAFFIC LIGHT Harry' S. Grotz and Joe Battalio, Wellsburg, W. Va., assigner-s of one-third to William J. Kirk, VVellsburg, W. Va.

Application March 4, 1932. serial No. 596,816

2 claims. (c1. 177-327) This invention relates to that type of trailic light suspended or otherwise supported at street intersections to control intersecting lines of` trac, which usually embody three lights, a green go-light, a red stop-light, and an amber or yellow caution-light combined with electrical switching devices adapted to automatically, at timed inter-4 vals, energize the lights; and the object of the present invention is to providea lightl of this type that will greatly minimize the consumption of electric current and at the same time will materially reduce the size of the light box or casing, as Well as reduce to a minimum the upkeep of the light by the elimination of the use of lament bulbs and colored lenses, as more fully hereinafter set forth. AThis invention ,in its broadest aspect may be applied to lights other than traffic lights and it is understood therefore that all the claims are not restricted to the traflic'light art.

Fig. l is a front view of our improved light, with the lens-carrying cover closed.

Fig. 2 is a similar view with the lens carrying cover open.

Fig. 3 is a horizontal sectional view taken through the center of- Fig. 1, and

Figs. 4, 5 and 6 are detail views hereinafter described.

Referring to the drawings annexed by reference characters, 10 designates a portion of one ed to be mounted on a post or suspended at the street intersection. We t into a circular hole in this wall 10 a reflector casing 11, and secure this casing 1l against the Wall l0 in a removable manner by means of screws 12, Fig. 2. This relector casing is closed at its inner side and its annular ring-like side and is open at its front end. Remova'bly clamped to the front open end of this reector casing is a lens-carrying ring 40 13 fastened removably to the reflector casing by means of suitable pivoted clamp screws 14, which permit the lens carrier to be removed. This carrier ring 13 carries a lens 15 of clear or crystal glass, this lens being suitably corrugated on its it translucent to thereby prevent the three light sources mounted within the reflecting chamber to inner face and also on its outer face to render form a complete illuminating ring, and the ends of the tubes are turned backwardly, at right angles to the plane of the ringand each provided with a metallic thimble 19 for making contact with the current conducting means. These backwardly turned ends of the tubes serve as the only supporting means for each tube. The tubes are mounted in different vertical planes, one in front of the other so that the tubes which are not illuminated will interfere inthe least possible way with the proper distribution of the rays from a lighted tube. These illuminating tubes, as will be observed, are so disposed that each 'l one will completely flood the reflecting chamber with light, and in order that these light rays shall be diffused and refracted through the crystal lens, in a mass of rays, the interior reiiecting surface of the reflecting chamber is suitably roughened or broken up. In this way, when any one of the tubes is lighted the colored rays therefrom will be reflected out through the white, natural crystal lens in virtually a solid mass so that in view of the translucency of the lens it will be impossible, by looking inwardly through the crystal lens,"to`see even the outline of the light source, thus giving to the emitted rays the desirable appearance of coming through a colored lens. 'Ihis is a very important feature of our invention as all traffic lights in use today, so far as we are aware, employ colored lenses'. Thus 55 doing away with the need for colored lenses means a large saving in the cost of manufacture as the clear crystal lenses maybe manufactured much cheaper than even the lower quality of colored lenses.

Fastened to the rear of the back wall, of the reflecting chamber 11 is a series of insulator sockets 20 provided internally with contact springs 21 adapted to clasp a metal thimble 19. The inner end' of each clasping spring 2l is 95 electrically connected to a conductor pin 22 which may be electrically connected in a suitable manner tothe source of current used in this type of light. Each socket 20 is removably clamped to the back wall of the casing l1 by means of a clamp 100 ring 23 adapted to be drawn toward the wall of the casing 11 by means of screws 24, the socket tube 2O being provided with an ,exterior annular flange 25 for engagement-with the clamp ring 23. 'I'he annular ange 25 is obliquely arranged on the socket tube 20 and the boss 26 (on the wall 11) is similarly inclined, so that by rotatably adjustingthe socket before it is finally clamped homev the socket may be arranged to stand slightly obliquely with reference to the wall 11, as shown in Fig. 5, this oblique adjustment being desirable because of the fact that it is difficult toalways have the rearwardly extending parts of the illuminating tubes exactly parallel to each other. With this capacity to slightly incline the sockets, it will be an easy matter to relieve the tubes of strain when they are inserted in the sockets; this is important in this type of illuminating tube as the slightest leakage at the jointure of the tube with its metal socket 19 will cause the tube to quickly go bad. It will be observed that our construction permits the tubes to be readily inserted and removed independently of each other, so that it will be an easy matter to replace a dead tube with a live tube. Any suitable switching and wiring arrangement may be used to successively and automatically conduct the current into .the tubes.

We have illustrated but one lamp in the casing 11', but it will be understood that any number of lamps may be used as may be required to satisfy the traiic conditions. It will be observed also that the entire lamp structure may be readily removed for inspection and repair from the casing l1, it being understood that the contact pins 22 are to be disconnectedly connected to` the source of current in any suitable maner.

In Fig. 3, we illustrate one convenient way of connecting up the tubes to the various circuits. In this view We illustrate a panel board 27 which is suitably mounted within lthe casing 10 at a point just back of the reflecting chamber. This panel board carries contact springs 28 which make contact with their companion contact points 22 of the respective sockets. The contacts on the panel board are connected .in the usualmanner to the transformer. In this way it will be seen that by merely inserting the reflecting chamber carrying the tubes in the casing all the proper contacts will be properly made and maintained until the reecting chamber is removed.

In signal lights of this type there is of course a limit to the practical size of the lens in the reflecting chamber, and for this reason it is important that the light-emitting tubes must be not only so arranged that each will when energized completely iiood the reecting chamber with its particular light, but also that they shall be closely spaced with reference to each other without danger of the energizing current jumping from one set of terminals to the ,terminals of another tube as that would result in a blended light, which of course would be fatally objectionable in this type of apparatus. With our arrangement we are enabled to get all the tubes necessary within' a reflecting chamber of a practical size and at the same time avoid illuminating more than one tube at a time. This is brought about by staggering the pairs of terminals and their sockets, meaning by this that the break in each tube is staggered with reference to the break in the adjacent tube,

so that the pairs of sockets for each tube are as far apart as possible', making it impossible for the current to jump from one tube to another, and thereby preventing under all conditions any such blending of the colors as would occur where any two of the tubes energize at the same time. This arrangement also enables us to employ terminals and sockets of ample size for the Work. This arrangement also enables us to overlap the adjacent ends of the tubes, as shown in Fig. 2, in order that there shall be no break in each circle of light. .In accordance with the provisions of the patent statutes, we have herein described the principle of operation of our invention, together With the apparatus which we now consider to represent the best embodiments thereof, but we desire to have it understood that the apparatus disclosed is only illustrative and that the invention can be carried out by other means.

Also, while it is designed to use the various features and elements in the combinations and relations described, some of these may be altered and others omitted and some of the features of each modification may be embodied in the others without interfering with the more general results outlined, and the invention extends to such use.

We claim:

1. A street traffic controller of the type set forth, including a flood-light chamber having an open side and a plurality of electrical-discharge light-tubes arranged therein, these tubes being gas-charged to emit different colors when madev ber with its particular light when energized, and a non-colored diiusing glass lens covering the open side of said flood-light chamber.

2. A street traic controller of the type set forth, including a light-chamber box-like in form having side and back walls and an open frontside, and a plurality of separate electrical-discharge light-tubes arranged therein, these tubes being each circular in shape and charged so as to emit fdiferent colors when made luminescent by an 'electric current, the interior surfaces ofthe light chamber being formed with a multiplicity of light-reflecting surfaces to flood with colored light the entire interior of the light-chamber when HARRY S. GROTZ. JOE BATTALIO.

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